As a marketer, you want to get the best results from your online ad campaigns, which means you definitely want to increase your conversion rate in Google Ads (and not only). How do you do that? By understanding metric terms, how they correlate to each other, and measuring your results.'

To help you get there, we'll explain what a conversion rate is, how it differs from the click-through rate, review how it affects your cost-per-click, and give you some awesome tips on how to increase your conversion rates. 

What Is a Conversion Rate?

Simply put, a conversion rate is the percentage of users who make a purchase or take some other action you want them to take after they click on one of your pay-per-click ads (PPC) during a certain timeframe. PPC ads have the potential to boost your ads to the top of search engine results pages and make sure customers see them on social media sites and other websites. 

That's important stuff because the higher your conversion rate, the more money you can put in your pockets. 

Why should I invest in PPC advertising? Because it works! The average return on investment (ROI) is $2 for every $1 you spend in advertising. Let's get started learning how to increase conversion rates.

Difference Between CR and Click-Through Rate and How It Affects CPC

The click-through rate, or CTR, is a metric in the form of a percentage that tells you how many users clicked on your ad before going to your landing page or website. The conversion rate tells you how many of them took an action once they got there. 

What do CTR rates have to do with how to increase conversion rates? When you purchase paid ads on Facebook, Google AdWords, or other online ad platforms, the CTR will influence your ad's quality score and relevance score. 

Before you get too excited about CTRs, you need to know that high rates are not always a great sign. Your ad might be targeting the wrong keywords or visitors aren't finding your ads or landing pages. Visitors might not think your ads are relevant or helpful. On your journey of learning how to increase conversion rates, you need to test multiple metrics that give you data on conversions. 

How CTR Affects CPC

In most cases, a strong CTR will give you a higher quality score, and that will decrease your CPC and improve your ad's ranking. 

A healthy CTR is a metric to watch and it's also important for organic search social media, conversion rate optimization (CRO), and email marketing. 

Why Is Conversion Rate in Google Ads Important?

Conversion rates directly impact your sales rates and revenue. Marketing expert Chris Keller from Bizible enlightens marketers on how to increase conversion rates by offering up 3 lessons on why they should focus on conversion rates. 

1. More traffic doesn't necessarily equal more sales
2. It's easier and less time-consuming to increase conversions than increasing traffic
3. Increasing conversions will give you a better ROI and profitability than focusing on web traffic

How CR affects CPC

Conversion rates go hand-in-hand with CPC and cost-per-acquisition (CPA), and these are important metrics to work with as you learn more about how to increase conversion rates. A higher conversion rate lowers your CPC, which lowers your CPA.

To get CPA, take your CPC and divide it by your conversion rate percentage. This figure represents how much you have to spend to get a buying customer on average. 

Top 10 Tips on How to Increase Conversion Rates in Google Ads 

1. Test, test, test! The best way to see what works and what doesn't is A/B testing. Get creative and learn to love experimenting. 

2. Be clear on your value proposition. Be compelling! As you learn how to increase conversion rates, you'll learn that value proposition is one of the most important conversion factors. You can change fonts and colors all day long, but you'll have a greater impact on your target market by strengthening your value propositions.

3. Evaluate your sales funnel. A mistake that some marketers make as they work on how to increase conversion rates is trying to move customers through the sales funnel too quickly. Depending on your product, customers may take longer to make the buying decision. Use your ads to keep them engaged until they're ready to hit the 'buy' button.

4. Use the remarketing tool for CRO. In your quest to get a grip on how to increase conversion rates, retargeting is an effective strategy because a tracking code helps you get a second chance at would-be buyers. Customers don't always buy on the first go-round. Remarketing improves your CRO and keeps your brand in front of customers. A good conversion tracking tool gets the job done. 

5. Align your ad copy with your landing pages. It's a strategy that gives you the most possible clicks and it will improve your quality score too. 

6. Follow best practices for implementing CTR. As you aim to get more experience on how to increase conversion rates, set a goal to get big numbers of people clicking on your ads and visiting your landing pages. You'll have better results if you spend your time and effort improving your Google Ads conversion rate than spending it setting up lots of ads that aren't producing results. 

7. Tap into the power of customer reviews and testimonials. Research shows that 92% of customers put off making purchases if there are no customer reviews. An astounding 97% of customers say they check out customer reviews before they make a choice to buy something they're interested in. As you work on how to increase conversion rates, keep in mind that customers are looking at your online presence and your reputation with previous buyers. Reviews and testimonials provide social proof that you're providing value. To get more reviews and testimonials, link to your Yelp page and other directory pages. If you want to make sure your buying customers won't miss testimonials, add some right on your website and they might not even go to third-party sites to read reviews. 

8. Track who is visiting your site and beware of click fraud. You'll have a difficult challenge in front of you in figuring out how to increase conversion rates if you can't tell who is visiting your website and landing pages or what they're doing when they get there. 

The problem is how can you be an invisible birdie on their shoulder and watch their every movement as they explore your web pages? Actually, you can. All you need to do is leverage website analysis tools and you can literally see screenshots of where visitors are going on your pages. If they click on an offer, you'll see that. If they pass over an offer, you'll see that too. 

While it's frustrating to watch someone abandon your contact form right before they get to their email address, you need to know that it's happening. It's all part of getting the hang of how to increase your conversion rates. 

Heat maps are another tool that will help you see the parts of your website that visitors view often. Also, a tool like ClickGUARD that prevents click fraud will automatically block suspicious clicks and give you more genuine insight and data about what's happening on your website when you're sleeping or away from your analytics. 

9. Add a live chat function. Something else that comes up when you're learning how to increase conversion rates is understanding why someone hesitates to hit the 'buy now' button. If they're not ready to pull the trigger, a quick answer to a question can get them off the fence. Adding a live chat function can expedite a sale. 

10. Add multiple calls-to-action (CTA) on your website and landing pages. Prompt them to download an offer, subscribe to your newsletter, or share your social media posts. 

Boost Your Conversion Rate on Your Website

Competition is strong in the e-commerce realm. While you might get a stray conversion here or there without working on it too hard, you'll get far better results when you optimize your website. The way to do that is to boost your conversion rate by building multiple CTAs into your website. What's even more awesome is you can apply the same strategies to mobile CRO.

Here are 5 examples of conversion optimization:

1. Making an online sale
2. Adding products to s shopping cart
3. Adding an item to the wishlist
4. Signing up for a newsletter
5. Sharing on social media

What figure are you looking for in your quest to make progress with how to increase conversion rates?  

Marketing experts shoot for a 2%+ conversion rate, and you should too. 
Try to imagine that you are the consumer. What would make you hit the 'buy now' button without hesitation? Your best strategies really come down to what your goals are and continually testing and making adjustments until you reach them. We've got lots of great marketing tips for you at ClickGUARD, so contact us to learn more.